30 March, 2009

Finest not Final

I take exception to calling the four teams remaining in the NCAA college basketball tournament as "The Final Four." Sounds like a term more applicable to a potato sack or turtle race than a basketball tournament. The spectators had already left when the final four turtles crossed the finish line in this year's "Crawl for the Roses." Or how about this: Investigators found bodies of the final four passengers known to be on the ill-fated flight. Morbid stuff, for sure.

Too bad Pitt came up a little short in making it to what I heretofore will call "The Finest Four." But what a great year anyhow winning 31 games out of 36 played. You never know what to expect from the Panthers―brilliant one minute, and the next it's like they never saw a basketball before. Nevertheless, you can't discredit a 31 and 5 season. And this year they made it all the way to the "Elite Eight," which by the way is well-named. It doesn't conjure up images of body-strewn wreckage or straggling turtles.

If I go on about college basketball people will start to think I'm a big fan. I do like to follow Pitt's fortunes, and the March Madness tournament is fun. Which by the way, how is your bracket? A local TV station has the audacity to offer a $50,000 prize for a perfect bracket. They must think we all fell off the same turnip truck. The odds against achieving a perfect bracket are astronomical; something like...well, here you can read about it: http://www.stat.yale.edu/~jay/News/WSJbb.pdf There are many sites that discuss this. Google or Yahoo "perfect bracket" for more.

So sad but true, those are the same numbers that apply to the Pirates' chances for having a winning season. I'm out of touch with the Buccos on a day-to-day basis, so, tell me have they ever tried bringing back the "green weenie" from the Bob Prince days? It just might be the ticket. It just might conjure up some sweet Terrible Towel-like results. Who knows, maybe their Finest Four can be the four games they win to capture the World Series. Yeah, that is pretty funny.